Monthly Archives: October 2006

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Bad, bad title. Setting up everyone to believe you can take control of the masses out there. As was acknowledged eventually in the panel conversation, taking control is out of the question but it seems that none of the panel had questioned the title in preparation. Again, this is taken from rapidly scribbled notes.
The panel were:

John: It means different things to different people. It’s a community environment; it’s not new – message boards, newsgroups are all UGC.

Dean: It’s content, of multiple medias, designed by non-paid professionals or amateurs. ie they are not paid by a company/agency to produce the stuff.

Mary: HP looks at UGC the way dean defines it.

Stacey: Is UGC and consumer control putting pressure on the marketeer?

Mary: Yes. we are not used to giving up control. have to let go and accept that users have a voice. Teams have to change tack from push to pull. It is a different mindset for 90% of the work.

Stacey: Are publishers changing their mindset?

John: Yes. It is a major paradigm shift.You have to deliver something unique, create a reason for the user to engage. It’s collaborative; as a publisher have to tak to clients. It’s more of a challenge, more creative.

Stacey: Could collaborative processes become best practices in the ‘traditional’ properties with Fox, as traditional becomes more digital?

John: At the end of the day digital is the sizzle. TV is still mass. Views it as co-dependents, need to work together to do a collaborative campaign. Fox can provide multiple touchpoints. Publishers have to deliver the platform across the panels.

Dean: Online brings new transparency; marketing is supposed to be about the consumer, online supports this. the good brands will survive the transparency.

Mary: Agrees that we need many channels. Last year HP committed to double online spend year on year. They were at 10%, so far the trend is ontrack. There is definitely a metrics challenge with talking to traditional side and sees problems in trying to bring the two systems together (to make a common standard). Let them be content with their reach and freuqency if that’s what makes them happy. Would love to see traditional become more accountable. But online we say the key metric is engagement and we still can’t explain that in a satisfactory manner to traditional advertisers.

From here on in, there was little clarity between the differences between advertising on UGC sites such as MySpace and UGC as in content that supports (or not) the brand from entities other than paid agencies. Some times a question was answered from both perspectives. There was no pointing out the differences between the two approaches, both of which have advantages and disadvantages, which confused some people, if those sitting next to me were to go by.

Dean: Consumers are in control and that is good as consumers will make the decisions that are good for them and good for the brand.

A straw poll was conducted at this point and only one person admitted to being scared to death over the consumers being in control. I think more should be, it’s going to change a lot of people’s jobs.

John: UGC gives immediate feedback as to where users are connecting with positioning and proposition and allows you to examine the brand. It’s an immediate focus group.

Mary: Sees data that says that social networks (ie myspace) don;t trust content/products that advertise in the network environments, There are good examples, but product messages are not the answer; building microsites can take the user out of the network which is also not good. Worried about the learning cost of understanding UGC.

Dean: we have to be interesting. great messages. we have to break through with stuff people want to receive.

Next was an audience Q&A session – a lot of questions.

Q: How do you trust the UGC?

John: you can start by putting your toe in the water, [advertise] in safe places on the network, ie myspace homepage. Start to build up your credibility and trust. Some advertisers only want to be in protected areas. The risk takers are the automotives, fast foods, entertainment/studios.

Q: How far can you go with pulled content (ie can it be more edgier than traditional bought media)

Mary: a brand needs to create content that people want to pull. Create complete messages. As you get to the longtail how can you control? HP is slowly dipping toes in this area. Wants to be more associated with content that is sort of peer reviewed and is not prepared to go to the tail.

John: if innapproapriate content is placed around ads, they can (and have) pulled the ads. It puts pressure on media planners to be careful.

Dean: Kayak launched a TV campaign that was controversial, extended it online by creating an ad tool and asking users to create their own ads. they did moderate and remove things hateful, too sexual but it did go further than normally allowed (on network). It was seen as a way to extend the media buy.

Here, Mary may be doing a service to all us smaller bloggers out here..it’s often about influence, not total reach and just ‘cos we’re out on the tail does not mean we are edgier. But I though only Dean answered the question about can you go more edgy online, or when consumers are choosing to create media or whn advertising next to uncensored stuff. I’ve seen the types of lines that can get cut from ads ‘cos the TV networks don’t like them and was shocked by some of the decisions, what was not allowed in. On line is slightly less restrained and you can stretch the brand, although you always have to remember that users can stretch it far further.

Q: is it really a paradign shift as marketing has always been about engagement and is it just an opportunity shift?

Mary: marketers have to think differently now across the channels.

Stacey: we have had a dialogue before but limited reach. Now we have a dialogue with a channel as consumers are a channel too. Consumers spread the word so this challenges how we engage.

John: it is having a huge impact on the ad infrastructure. The audience is fragmented, you have to customise more. You have to increase badnwidth to address this fragmentation.

Dean: it lets us do it faster, better, cheaper. Has unlocked a creative renaissance (all the tools). it is truly exciting.

Q: If Fox is selling the protected spaces, what % of reach is actually seeing this space?

John: the protected areas reference was about giving advertisers a safe space if they were uncomfirtable. many are moving into the unprotected areas. The home page gets about 15m uniques, about 200m impressions. This is about 25% of the user base.

Q: what happens when UGC heckles the brand?

Dean: that’s life! Not everyone likes the brand. we can’t get crazed about it.

Mary: It’s no longer the email that goes round the company, now everyone can see the problem. But if you are in the right the user community will stand up for you and defend you. If you are credible and stay true, the community will stand up.

Stacey: problems start with this when a brand ‘plays’ at this and does not really let up control.

Q: how much control is too much before you lose credibility?

Dean: You can’t take control and should not. things like Payperpost will backfire and cause problems.

Stacey: If you are just looking at spreading the brand then you are missing the boat. We should do more to learn about how users see the brand. We can’t just count eyeballs.

And there time was up. For me, this was a far better panel than the first one. Some realism that things have to change. But like the morning session, still a lot of confusion about what this means.

Frank Kelly is the CEO of Arnold US and has written a book ‘The Breakaway Brand – How Great Brands Stand Out’. However, I found his talk about using interactive to help build brands extremely frustrating, with multiple asides and exclamation marks in my notes as he said something that I disagreed with or just left me baffled. (I’ll add those in to the notes as I go through). As the person next to me said, he was obviously selling his book but not necessarily giving any real insights into interactive usage. He’s CEO of an agency that has dome some great interactive work but he’s the CEO – I’m not sure that indepth understanding is within his remit. The first half of the talk was about branding in general before moving onto interactive. Again notes are taken as fast as i could, paraphrasing where necessary.Building Breakaway Brands in an Interactive World

Companies aspire to get their brands to a great place and the book looks at 50 brands that great.

The web is the greatest development in marketing since TV; there’s unbelievable potential but lots of problems. You have to understand it but by focusing on many small details, on building a better heart monitor, we may end up blowing up the hospital.

To be a breakaway brand you have to be in a category of one, you have to be different. Interactive is a growing influence in building a brand. 15% of Arnold employees are digital specialists; for their biggest 20 clients these specialists sit in the service teams, not in a separate team.

You have to understand how the brand is different and then execute to drive the brand away from the competition. Interactive currrently has aound $16billion out of an industry of $300billion so there is a plenty of growth available.

The disaggregated model make sit harder to get a breakaway brand as all elements need to work together. You have to have a core idea against which all activity is executed. A good example would be Dove, Campaign for Real Beauty. The best campaigns often come from such simple insights.

Marketing has moved from building businesses to building brands and is now building communities. The two key elements in any campaign are TV and the web; you need to focus on how they work together, along with all the other channels. (The conference chair later made a comment about how three years ago they were doing sessions about convincing people that the web was an important component so was pleased that a CEO was now saying it was key)

We now move into the core of the talk, where Fran goes through 7 areas where he thinks the web really helps drive brands.

This section was the one that most annoyed me. There was no talk about how these sites build community; from the examples and from the text, it seemed to be that building community was equated with building a interactive site that engages people and gets them to spend time on the site. Not encouraging interaction and feedback amongst brand fans and back and forth with the brand which is where I’d put building community.

Driving Results

Examples – Google and Vonage. Both of these have used the web to successfully drive results and drive brands. Google is a $140billion idea and Vonage uses brilliant segmentation to drive targeted advertising.

Google is a web company and of course needs the web to drive the results. Google search was used as the key example that drives the results as opposed to the contextual ads which were the key to driving revenue. Again, the example driven did not illustrate the point enough for me.

Stretching Budgets
Example: theTruth.com Truth funding has reduced from $100m to $25m. !0 years ago 80% of their advertising was on TV, now it is only 20% and they are using the web to drive most of their message and stretch their budget. The site is continuosly changed and updated to keep it fresh

Here’s an example I agree with. The web is great for making more of your budget when it comes to engagement (if you are not necessarily after mass reach) And the site itself looks perfectly targeted, at ‘young, disaffected teeens’. As he says, the teens who are likely to be affected by the ‘talk to your children/talk to your parents’ message are unlikely to actually be the ones the need the message!

Respecting the Channel

examples – two commercials that were used on abc.com online programming. You cannot just repurpose the TV ads for this, both the ads were specially created and were effective.

Although this is not a reason why the web is good (which most of the rest are) it is a reason why you need to think differently and cannot just use it as an extension of TV or print but have to think holistically about the whole campaign and how all the parts fit together

Building Loyalty

Examples: thetruth.com and espn.com. Tracking has shown that people can spend 10-45 mins on thetruth.

Is he measuring engagement and interest or loyalty. The first is about how long someone may stay on your site exploring it; the second is about return rates (for a website at least)? the principle is sound, the explanation is poor.

Brand Modernisation

Example talbots. A classic clothes brand (catalog) that has used the web to improve sales. the web is its fastest growing and most profitable of its biusiness. the web shopper has higher purchase and lower return rates than the catologue shoppers.

He gives a good example of a retailer that has used the web effectively to maintain and grow sales in a world that no longer relies on printed media for its at home purchases. But does this modernise the brand. Does beng on the web mean that a brand is hip and with it? No, it does not, it’s reality of marketing today that you often need to be on the web but being on the web is not a short cut to modernisation.

Disintegration vs Integration

The great brands see all the channels pulled together, it’s part of the whole campaign not treated as something different.

Again agree. But can also see the place where the web is great to try out the outer reaches of the brand message.

And that was the end of the speach. Writing it up I’m still frustrated and annoyed. Kelly is a successful speaker about building brands and building great brands. The book itself is supposed to be good. But he hit all the wrong buttons with me, not really explaingin his points.

One more to go ‘taking control of UGC’. Happily, the panel were more realistic than the title.

I must live 7 straight days out of my Sentra. I am free to come and go from the Sentra as I please.

I must not return to my apartment at any point during the 7 days.

I must assume my normal day-to-day responsibilities including work and all scheduled client meetings.

I must personally prepare at least 4 meals within the immediate vicinity of my Sentra.

I must go on at least one date. Hopefully more.

I must not let anyone else drive my car for the 7 days.

I must sleep in a different location each night. Once the location is chosen I must not move from it.

I must not set foot outside of my car for any reason from 12am to 5am.

I must host at least 2 social functions in my Sentra. One must be on or after Day 6.

I must maintain the highest standards of personal hygiene.

The last one is curious, as he only thought he needed three pairs of underwear for the week! Maybe this is why Nissan put a disclaimer on the link to the blog about not necessarily agreeing within everything said 😉
The car industry was mentioned today as one of the areas that is embracing integrated marketing and this is a good example. I’m not sure where else this is – definitely online ads, not seen it elsewhere, but I like it.

Today, I spent some time at the IAB ‘Agency Summit’ which looked at interactive advertising. I took notes of a few of the sessions, the first being a look at Total Communications Planning. The panel comprised of:

The notes I took are verbatim or sumarised when the talking came too fast.

Mike: Can I ask the panelists to define TCP?

Maria: It’s a paradigm shift in marketing, moving from a content-centric push channel to a consumer-centric pull channel, where you plan around the user’s day, plan around the touchpoints.

Louis: the definition is still being written and there’s still a way to go. It’s changing all the while. Data and measurement help round out the picture.

Bob: Data is one of the key skills missing in TCP in many agencies. TCP is 21st century marketing and starts with the consumer. It needs a creative core, we run the risk of being too specialised and do not take a holistic view. A new model that needs a new way of thinking.

Mike: Do you think clients have the urgency to change?

Louis: Yes; they are interested in a single voice that resonates through the channels, but in practice this is difficult due to client/agency structures. Marketeers are beginning to change but still a way to go.

Mike: How are digital practictioners coming at TCP?

Maria: Everything is moving digital now; currently 50%, moving towards 80% in a few years. All channels move towards it; it comes down to the fundamentals of marketing.

Mike: How good is the measurement of TCP?

Bob: there’s some, but it’s disparate, oftne proprietary. In the end it all leads to sales but there are no standards – they are being worked on. But this is not a new metric to replace the old but is about understanding that this is a whole new world. We need to move away from transferring the old points of reference (TV/print) to the new one (the first TV was just radio with a camera pointed at it). We need to target better, to move closer to the consumer. the principles of marketing are the same but we need to increase the depth.

Mike: Do companies recognise the importance of opening their data up?

Louis: We keep pushing it, some do. The sales feeds is a key to understanding behaviour.

Mike: Are non-retail clients data driven?

Maria: Yes. Digital allows you to measure more than before. All clients now need/want data and agencies are evolving to match their needs.

Mike: Do you rely on the agency or the client for analytics?

Bob: We have our own specialists and rely on outsourcing much to other third party specialists. The skillsets are not at the clients to manage the databases, to build targeting algorithms and still a long way to go with database mining.

Mike:Are clients organised for TCP?

Maria: We are still trying to figure it out on both sides. There is blurring between the advertising and content model; it is difficult when the creative and the media buyers are separate.

Mike: How do you suggest clients organise?

Louis: you deal with what you have on a case by case basis. Client organisation does impact what you deliver; you have to set objectives/goals and describe the journey and work around the organisation issues.

Mike: should it be an aggregated or disaggregated model?

Maria: A disaggregated model can work if someone from the client pulls it all together but this is often difficult to do so an aggregated model may be easier to get the pull.

Louis: Aggregated is hard to pull off. You need specialists, it’s difficult to do everything. There’s always new things. Pulling it all together is a skill.

Bob: someone has to co-ordinated. Aggregated and disaggregated are just along a spectrum, you have to have a co-ordinator. You have to connect across the channels with the what and the how and organisation can help or hinder but it still has to happen.

My take:

From this (and others) I never got clarity about what type of online marketing they were talking about – is it advertising on others’ sites, using RM data to target users or building their own properties. Despite the talk about pull media, this panel still focused on the client/agency controlled model even if the touchpoints have fractured and the user is slighly more in control about when they see advertising.

The panellist recognised the difficulties involved in both agencies and clients in moving towards a integrated model but no-one had real answers to combine mass with targeting. The lack of measurement and standards is one I face all the time, espcially when combining it with more traditional methods so we do have to challenge some comparisons that are made. No major insights came out of this for me.

I’ve changed over the software, imported the posts and managed to get most of the links working in the same way. I think I’ve sorted out the feeds by following the relevant instructions, but not too sure. So added an upgrade entry into the old ones. All I need to do is upgrade the style sheets and design, but that will take more time then I have now I think.

A couple of virals for Friday – both UK based. The first is from the Rugby Football Union, not your usual source of viral videos, with a short funny encouraging you to go out and play rugby. If you are a cat fan, this may not be your cup of tea.

The second is from my previous empoyer Smirnoff. As the US bans online gambling (and see Freakonomics for a good analysis of that and why it is stupid) Smirnoff UK, in conjunction with FHM, release Czar Roulette – spin the wheel, predict the numbers and win entry to a sweeps for 500 quid at the same time as giving them your name for the database. The game itself is as fun as any other roulette game, especially as I don’t have any money on it. Couple of annoying things about it, though: having my opt-ins pre-populated is bad practice and not something I thought Diageo did; and do I really have to go through a second age check if I want to visit the main Smirnoff site?

I’ve finally got my living arrangements sorted out and will be moving into a more permament apartment in New York. Which means packing up my London flat, putting most into storage and shipping the rest across. I’m moving out of the rented room up on 181st St into my own little apartment up the Upper East Side which looks promising.

Meanshile I’m planning on changing over the blog to WordPress this weekend; I’ve been using it in relation to wrok blogs and decided I like it better. Knowing my ability to do these things, there may be problems galore, but hopefully things like the feeds won’t change. I think the links will though so i’ll have to wrok round that.

Today, I had the good fortune to listen to Jordon Glazier, the CEO of eventful, talk about his service. They say time flies ont he web but I was surprised that the service was only 1 year old as I it feels like I’ve been aware of it for much longer. That said, I use it rarely being more of an upcoming user. However, by the sound of it there are a number of changes coming along that may change that choice, with increased personalisation available, the ability to see what your friends are doing and share your events etc.

For me, the search/category option is far easier to work around on Eventful and makes it easier to find my way round the site without having to dig through a lot of pages. But the most interesting side is the Demand side – demand an event and it may just happen. I first saw this being used on Wil Wheaton’s blog, with him using it to organise a few readings on a trip. Jordon stated that the original purpose was to enable ‘fan’ driven events, pulling together like minded people and hopefully persuading someone to do something but the service has taken off far more for artists, comedians etc who use it to find out where major concentrations of fans reside and organise tours etc. Otep are using it to finalise 6 cities in their next tour. All in all, a good service I’m going to be looking at more.

A couple of ‘virals’ have come through the mailing list over the last few days. The first, from Capri-sun, is fun, but found in a very confusing site. It ‘supports’ the new drink made from Blood Oranges and is claled Guffy the Ghost. Use you mouse, click a lot, kill lots of pumpkin headed vampires and win an iPod. The main Big, Flat and Twisted site is very confusing to me. There’s a lot of little fun games, a sign up for more information, a few commercials and a solicitation to send in your stuff – what for, I’m not sure. Can’t see anything on the site curently, it looks like it dissappears into a black hole – a rather flat attempt at UGC, it sounds like somebody had this idea and just thought that by sticking a lin they’d get a content.

The second is a very nicely done AI type experience – Ask the Spirits. A viral with an age check (they ask that you are over 15) you get to question the spirits via a ouija board. It’s apparently got some learning behind it, tracking common questions and getting answers added to it. At the moment it seems to like the answer doctor, which it gave me as an answer to its favourite dance and to the name of the boyfriend of Andrew, my guest spirit of the day. Noce flash, a few scary moments – I like this one.

Firefox 2 was released yesterday…it looks slightly different but still works wonderfully. They’ve fixed the thing that most annoyed me and you can now set it so that it remembers the tabs you closed with and re-opens them all on start-up, which is a great little feature for me. The only issue I’ve seen to date is websites (such as the bank) not recognising it – but switching user agent gets round that. (I wonder how many sites will not work with IE7).

So go visit Mozilla and download the new version. Dad – this means you!

My webhost turned off the service due to my a complaint about my domain being used for spamming. It’s been used once, but a while ago, but still, they shut down access and removed all permissions from anything that actually did anything. IT seems to be back OK and so do some comments that never got through to me nor appeared on the list, despite me being able to post. Let’s hope things don;t go wrong again.

It’s the 20th anniversary of Withnail and I and to celebrate there is a new special edition of the DVD coming out. To support the release comes the mandatory website and viral game. Using a version of the memory game, you have to serve Withnail an increasing longer drinks list until he falls down drunk (with a nice little surprise at the end). I’m not sure whether this is a bug or not, but you can build up the drink level without necessarily getting the order correct, but the inebriation is quicker when you do get the order right. Once completed, you can enter to win a weekend away as well as handing over your info for updates

If I was still working for my previous company, i probably would not have posted this…as it ‘supports’ drinking to excess. The game is still fun, the passing out for real not a good idea.

when it’s a post. Tom beat me to writing about this. After reading a couple of papers* about the ‘One Day In History‘ initiative, I noticed the trend to use the word ‘blog’ as meaning a single posting/entry onto a website which is also known as a blog. This mistake is not new, I’ve noticed it being used in conversation with people who do not blog but have picked up the meaning from media. My guess is this usage is becoming too common and we are stuck with it. Prepare to be annoyed forever.

*I do like the Telegraph’s word ‘blog-clog'; it’s the first time I’ve seen it, despite it seeming to have a longish history .

Microsoft’s entry into the video market looks pretty good. It’s got all the expected features – tagging, commenting, links/embedding, accounts (tied into your Passport account) all put together in a pretty slick interface.

Even better, the video quality seems to outshine YouTube and Google Video. To test it out, I grabbed the Bravia Ad (the HD version at 36MB) and ran it through the upload process. It took 25 minutes to upload and process but the results look good.

BL Ochman has been interacting with OfficeMax and their new line of Tul Pens. At first glance, it looked like a compnay had taken it so far, but not all the way, constrained in part by logistics, costs and legal. But the response back to her shows that this company if more on the ball than most and has probably put in place the time and budget to interact directly with the commenters and looking for references on Technorati does confirm that they are going out and interacting.

The campaign will analyse your handwriting via print insert postcards that you send in or from a series of questions on the website. The video reply back is excellently put together, very smooth – and funny. Well worth a look.

What did you do yesterday? Go through your routine, get up, go to work or school, work for the day before returning to grab a few hours for yourself before starting the cycle again. Or did you do something different, out of the ordinary. Whatever you did, go over to History Matters and write it up,

Make history with us on 17 October by taking part in the biggest blog in history.

‘One Day in History’ is a one off opportunity for you to join in a mass blog for the national record. We want as many people as possible to record a ‘blog’ diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life.

Write your diary here reflecting on how history itself impacted on your day – whether it just commuting through an historic environment, discussing family history or watching repeats on TV.

If you are so inclined, you can even add your entry in Welsh. You’ve got until 1 November to add your entry, which will be stored by the Bristish Library and be available to the world.

In a similar manner, Yahoo are collecting words and images for a time capsule

For 30 days, from October 10 until November 8, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio – even drawings – to this electronic anthropology project. This digital data will be gathered and preserved for historical purposes.
And by November 8, you will have helped create a digital legacy of our times, a mosaic of revealing snapshots that will be sealed and entrusted to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings based in Washington D.C., officially taking its place in history.

Just in case there’s too much stuff there for you, the team are regualrly pulling out their favourites via the blog for the project.

Sony Bravia TV have a new commercial out. Using gallons of paint and a disused Glasgow tower block, the ad was filmed over the summer. It can be found over on their ‘blog’..

Another great ad from them, bringing home the message of colour without no other. However, whilst being able to produce a 70′ piece of film, I’m disappointed in their attempt to replicate some of the buzz that surrounded the first ad with the balls – they are doing some things but not pushing it out to where they promised it would be.

The site will also feature podcasts, stills, video and text from the making of the new ad, which is understood to feature fireworks and paint in a similar way to ‘balls’, which showed thousands of coloured balls bouncing down a San Francisco street.
Sony will also feed content and encourage comments on sites including dig.com, del.icio.us, Flickr.com and YouTube.tv and provide bloggers with digital cameras and access to the commercial set so they can film content for the site.
All the site content will be updated daily and users can subscribe to receive notifications via RSS feeds.

What I expected:

a series of posts about the shoot (provided – but all removed now)

links out to all those bloggers that were providing coverage (some of this was done)

a series of posts during the last few months about the editing and post-production of the ad (nothing)

assets about the new ad (these are there)

They have provided a lot of images and multiple versions of the ad for you to download and share (but why not a link to embed the video on my site). So they are expecting me to go sell there message – and look, I am. But I’m being short-changed. I wanted to follow the story of how the ad was put together, to feel that I could comment and participate in that process. Instead, a corporate is still spoon-feeding me but now expects me to to be part of that push process. Yes, I enjoy the ad; yes, i have brand awareness for the TV but the negatives still outweigh the positive.

As I find myself unexpectedly in London, I thought I’d go take a look at the slides at Tate Modern. There are 5 alll together, with the longest spiralling down from the 5th floor. Unfortunately by the time I got there, there were no more tickets left for the ride. I’m going to have to go again and get there early.

I signed up for the Google Press Mailing List; up until now it’s been pretty quiet and RSS/other sources have been quicker. Today it’s been working well, with 2 releases this morning about Google Video signing deals with Warner Music and Sony BMG to allow uesers to watch their music videos and to purchase them if they want to. Another video service workign with the music biz who have finally wised up to allowing people access to content to watch and share increases the opportunities for sales – sort of like YouTube. And finally today, confirming the rumours over the weekend, Google announce they have bought YouTube for $1.65billion. It will continue to act independently to “preserve its successful brand and passionate community.”

With content companies, both tv and music, making deals with YouTube, the threat of lawsuits al a Napster by be reducing but can not have gone completely. Google is a far bigger prize – i wonder if it will entice any sharks intot he water.